Prevalence of Frailty Among Hospitalized Older Adults in New Brunswick, Canada: an Administrative Data Population-Based Study

Abstract

Background Characterizing the prevalence and distribution of frailty within a population can help guide decision-making and policy development by identifying health service resource needs. Here we describe the prevalence of frailty among hospitalized older adults in New Brunswick (NB), Canada. Methods NB administrative hospital claims data were used to identify hospitalized older adults aged 65 or older between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2019. Frailty was quantified using the Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS), a validated frailty tool derived from claims data. Individuals with a HFRS ranked as intermediate or high were categorized as frail. The distribution of frailty across sex and age are described. Crude prevalence estimates and corresponding 95% confidence intervals are presented. Results A total of 55,675 older adults (52% females) were hospitalized. The overall prevalence of frailty was 21.2% (95%CI: 20.9–21.6). Prevalence increased with age: 12.7% (95%CI: 12.3–13.1) in the 65–74 age group, 24.7% (95%CI: 24.1–25.3) in the 75–84 age group and 41.6% (95%CI: 40.6–42.7) for those aged 85 and over (p<.001). Discussion/Conclusion The distribution of frailty is in line with that reported in other jurisdictions. We demonstrate the feasibility of the HFRS to identify and characterize frailty in a large sample of older adults who were hospitalized, using administrative data.